Finger sleeve

ABSTRACT

A tubular sleeve that fits snuggly on a user&#39;s finger and is designed to publicize a theme, logo, school, sport, interest, message, or for some other purpose and is worn on a finger of a user in a manner that does not interfere with the use of a hand or finger, is easily stored, and can be used to express an interest, a desire, a preference, or to show support.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent contains material that issubject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection tothe reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patentdisclosure as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent filesor records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a finger sleeve. In particular, itrelates to a finger sleeve designed to promote a user's interest to acharity, school, team, character graphics, logo, words, imagery, and thelike.

Description of Related Art

The use of various articles, many clothing related, to promote aparticular interest of an individual is well known. Examples includeblankets, mugs, giant foam hands with a pointed finger, bracelets, keychains, and the like. They have the ability to express a wide variety ofuser interest messages that are not for advertising, but rather to showsupport for a particular theme, logo, school, charity, sport, person,message, reminder, and the like. The one thing that all of these itemshave in common is that the message is visible to others.

While these items have their place at schools, events, and the like,they all have the common problem of the element of size, which arefairly large in most cases, making storage a difficulty when anindividual(s) has concluded use of the item. This is especially truewhen moving from an appropriate venue to one that such a support item ofinterest is inappropriate. Accordingly, having a smaller device for ashow of such support of an interest is needed.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a device for placement on a singlefinger with one or more user interest items/messages placed on thedevice. In particular, it has been discovered that a finger sleeve thatfits snuggly, is tubular in shape, and is elastomeric, and the like,solves the problems noted above due to its size, and complication of theprior art.

Accordingly, in one embodiment, there is a device for displaying a userinterest message comprising:

-   -   a) a tubular sleeve of a size to fit snuggly on a single finger        of a user; and    -   b) a user interest message placed on the tubular sleeve.

In another embodiment, there is a method for displaying a user interestmessage on a user comprising:

-   -   a) selecting a user interest message tubular sleeve comprising:        -   i. a tubular sleeve of a size to fit snuggly on a single            finger of the user; and        -   ii. a user interest message printed on the tubular sleeve;            and    -   b) placing the tubular sleeve on a single finger of the user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the device of the present invention on afinger of a user.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

While this invention is susceptible to embodiment in many differentforms, there is shown in the drawings, and will herein be described indetail, specific embodiments with the understanding that the presentdisclosure of such embodiments is to be considered as an example of theprinciples and not intended to limit the invention to the specificembodiments shown and described. In the description below, likereference numerals are used to describe the same, similar, orcorresponding parts in the several views of the drawings. This detaileddescription defines the meaning of the terms used herein andspecifically describes embodiments in order for those skilled in the artto practice the invention.

Definitions

The terms “about” and “essentially” mean±10 percent.

The terms “a” or “an”, as used herein, are defined as one or as morethan one. The term “plurality”, as used herein, is defined as two or asmore than two. The term “another”, as used herein, is defined as atleast a second or more. The terms “including” and/or “having”, as usedherein, are defined as comprising (i.e., open language). The term“coupled”, as used herein, is defined as connected, although notnecessarily directly, and not necessarily mechanically.

The term “comprising” is not intended to limit inventions to onlyclaiming the present invention with such comprising language. Anyinvention using the term comprising could be separated into one or moreclaims using “consisting” or “consisting of” claim language and is sointended.

Reference throughout this document to “one embodiment”, “certainembodiments”, “an embodiment”, or similar terms means that a particularfeature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the presentinvention. Thus, the appearances of such phrases in various placesthroughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to thesame embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, orcharacteristics may be combined in any suitable manner in one or moreembodiments without limitation.

The term “or”, as used herein, is to be interpreted as an inclusive ormeaning any one or any combination. Therefore, “A, B, or C” means any ofthe following: “A; B; C; A and B; A and C; B and C; A, B, and C”. Anexception to this definition will occur only when a combination ofelements, functions, steps, or acts are in some way inherently mutuallyexclusive.

The drawings featured in the figures are for the purpose of illustratingcertain convenient embodiments of the present invention and are not tobe considered as limitation thereto. The term “means” preceding apresent participle of an operation indicates a desired function forwhich there is one or more embodiments, i.e., one or more methods,devices, or apparatuses for achieving the desired function and that oneskilled in the art could select from these or their equivalent in viewof the disclosure herein, and use of the term “means” is not intended tobe limiting.

As used herein, the term “displaying” refers to positioning the deviceon a single finger of a user in a manner that the user interest messageplaced thereon can easily be seen. For example, positioning it with theuser interest message on the upper part of the finger sleeve as shown inthe Figures, as opposed to positioning the user interest message on theunderside of the finger sleeve where it can't be seen. Of course, wherea user has an open hand, the palm side may be preferred. In oneembodiment, there are 2 or more messages placed on the sleeve. In otherwords, placement depends on the user and how the user moves his or herhand.

As used herein, the term “user interest message” refers to a message(word, phrase, logo, and the like) that represents the user/wearer'sinterest or support in a particular subject. An individual observing thedevice would be aware of a user's likes, dislikes, interests, orpreferences. As used herein, the user's interest message does notinclude advertisements to sell a product or service for a business orentity or transactional information. Embodiments include a particulartheme, logo, school, charity, sport, person, message, reminder, and thelike which expresses a preference, interest, or support of the message.

As used herein, the term “single finger of a user” refers to the designof the device being such that it will only fit on one finger at a time.The functionality of this design is so the device does not interferewith use of the hand, unlike devices that attach to two or more fingers.It fits on a select user's finger (e.g., the pinky finger) and is sizedto fit snuggly on a single finger.

As used herein, the term “snuggly” refers to the sleeve fitting in aclose-fitting manner or a manner so as to not fall off a finger. Thesleeve can be elastomeric, or the like.

As used herein, the term “selecting a user interest message fingersleeve” refers to the user choosing a device with the user interestmessage placed thereon (normally on the outside). However, if the sleevecan be turned inside out, a message could be placed on both the insideand/or outside of the finger sleeve.

As used herein, the term “placing the finger sleeve” refers to themethod of taking the finger sleeve and sliding it on the selectedfinger. The sleeve will either expand upon putting the sleeve on or itcan be expanded in a manner that allows the user to slip the sleeve ontoa finger. In one embodiment, the finger is the pinky finger.

As used herein, the term “tubular sleeve” refers to a tubular shapeditem made from a material that can have a message, image, or the likeplaced upon and fit snuggly on the finger. In one embodiment, it is anelastomer, such as neoprene, polychloroprene, elastic, or it can be madeof cloth. In general, the material will be a cloth type material whichis sewn, bound, molded, glued, or the like, together to form a tube. Thesleeve could also be molded where needed. In one embodiment, the sleeveis sized to fit about between the first and third knuckle of the finger.In one embodiment, the sleeve is constructed as a one-piece tubularsleeve.

As used herein, the term “placed on the sleeve” refers to using normalprinting or sewing techniques to put the desired user interest messageon the surface of the sleeve. Such printing methods are well within theskill in the art, in view of this disclosure. As an example, a redsleeve can be created and the message “Go NC State” placed thereon orsewn/created/printed on the fabric.

DRAWINGS

Now referring to the drawings, FIG. 1 is a perspective view of thedevice of the present invention. In this view, user interest messagefinger sleeve 1 and a message 2 is placed thereon. It can expand 3 dueto the material's ability to stretch and be sized to fit without beingtoo tight or too loose on the finger.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the device 1 on the finger of a user'shand 20. As shown, it is on the pinky finger, but any single fingercould be selected as long as the stretch, size, and length are such thatit fits snuggly on the selected finger, or as desired.

Those skilled in the art to which the present invention pertains maymake modifications resulting in other embodiments employing principlesof the present invention without departing from its spirit orcharacteristics, particularly upon considering the foregoing teachings.Accordingly, the described embodiments are to be considered in allrespects only as illustrative, and not restrictive, and the scope of thepresent invention is, therefore, indicated by the appended claims ratherthan by the foregoing description or drawings. Consequently, while thepresent invention has been described with reference to particularembodiments, modifications of structure, sequence, materials, and thelike apparent to those skilled in the art still fall within the scope ofthe invention as claimed by the applicant.

What is claimed is:
 1. A device for displaying a user interest messagecomprising: a) a tubular, sleeve of a size to fit snuggly on a singlefinger of a user; and b) a user interest message placed on the tubularsleeve.
 2. The device for displaying a user interest message accordingto claim 1, wherein the tubular sleeve is selected from at least one ofthe group consisting of elastomer, neoprene, polychloroprene, cloth, andelastic.
 3. The device for displaying a user interest message accordingto claim 1, wherein there is a plurality of user interest messages. 4.The device for displaying a user interest message according to claim 1,wherein the device is placed on the finger of the user.
 5. The devicefor displaying a user interest message according to claim 1, wherein thetubular sleeve is constructed by one of sewing, molding, binding, andgluing.
 6. The device for displaying a user interest message accordingto claim 1, wherein there is a user interest message selected from thegroup consisting of at least one of inside and outside of the tubularsleeve.
 7. A method for displaying a user interest message on a usercomprising: a) selecting a user interest message tubular sleevecomprising: i. a tubular sleeve of a size to fit snuggly on a singlefinger of the user; and ii. a user interest message printed on thetubular sleeve; and b) placing the tubular sleeve on a single finger ofthe user.